ASF China: Commercial farm hit; virus reaches Tianjin

African Swine Fever (ASF) appears to have gotten out of control in China. The authorities have reported the first large commercial farm to have been hit, the Tianjin municipality is the 9th province to confirm an outbreak – and it looks like there is more going than is being confirmed through official channels.

The commercial farm that was hit had 19,938 pigs on-site, according to the Chinese authorities.

Largest farm so far to report ASF

Press agency Reuters added that this farm is the largest so far to report the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus. Liaoning province in the north of the country has been reporting many outbreaks of late and is leading the count (OIE) by 14 outbreaks.

Reuters said that pig prices have dropped in the north east of China as farmers are not allowed to transport their herds out of the provinces. In the south of the country, however, prices have been increasing.

Re-thinking swine farm expansion plans

The Reuters article quoted Yao Guiling, an analyst with China-America Commodity Data Analytics. He told the press agency that the fact that the disease was confirmed on a large swine farm indicated that the situation has gotten more serious. He hinted that companies might re-think or slow their output expansion plans.

What will be the effect on the building of new commercial farms, now that the outbreak has been officially confirmed in a larger facility? This picture was not taken at a farm that was affected by ASF. Photo: Vincent ter Beek

Apart from this major outbreak, the Chinese authorities have reported 2 more outbreaks in Liaoning province, on farms of 1,571 pigs and on 270 pigs.

“Not every ASF outbreak is reported”

Various sources have reported independently to Pig Progress that it looks like not everything is reported in China with regard to African Swine Fever outbreaks. Allegedly, many more farms are being cleaned out due to ASF without any official report being made.

ASF confirmed in Tianjin

The OIE also confirmed, however, that a 9th province has been struck by the virus as it was also confirmed in Tianjin province. This outbreak was first noted on October 10. It took place on a farm with 639 pigs, of which 292 had been found infected. In total 189 animals had already died – and the other 450 had to be culled.

Tianjin is one of the 4 municipalities that is directly governed by the Chinese government. It is one of the most densely populated areas of China with over 15 million inhabitants. The city is located adjacent to Beijing Municipality and serves as a port for the country’s capital city.

As can be seen on the interactive outbreak map below, the total number of provinces affected now is 9. The latest reports by the Chinese government (on the large commercial farm with 20,000 pigs) have not been included yet.